Largest hydropower dam in Turkey powers up first turbine

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the country's largest hydropower dam in the southeast of the country.

The first of six turbines were powered up on Tuesday at the ceremony, which Erdogan attended via videoconference.

“The wind of peace, brotherhood and prosperity of Ilisu Dam will be spread in waves in the region by centuries,” Erdogan said on Tuesday.

Built as an inlet on the Tigris River, the dam aims to provide power to 1.3 million homes and also serve as an irrigation outlet to thousands of farmers.

The dam cost around $2 billion to build and will provide jobs for 7,000 workers.

Erdogan said Turkey is revolutionising renewable energy as it has built 585 more dams since 2002.

“We plan to launch 403 more facilities in 2020,” he added.

The dam is expected to produce around 3,800 gigawatts of power per year, while the onsite power station will have a holding capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

"By discharging the collected water in Ilisu Dam to the soon-to-be-built Cizre Dam in Turkey's southeastern region, we will be able to produce 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours of energy and irrigate around 766,000 hectares of land," Erdogan said.